hebes

Forms

hebes (genitive hebetis, comparative hebetior, superlative hebetissimus); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1] Ennius and Caecilius have the accusative hebem.^[2][3][4] The ablative is usually hebetī, but Celsus has hebete.^[2][3] Manuscripts often spell it ebes.^[2][5]

Etymology

It has no etymology.^[4][2][5] De Vaan finds it impossible to derive the verb hebeō (“to be blunt”) from the adjective or the adjective from the verb, and posits a stem *heb- underlying both; the adjective is a ⟨t⟩-stem like teres (“round”) and dīves (“rich”).^[4] He explains the accusative hebem as formed on the nominative.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, whose braggart soldier says something would happen if his sword were not blunt.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It is first blunt, of an edge or point, and in surveying obtuse, of angles.^[2] Of the eyes and the other senses it is dim or dull: Cicero writes that grief dims the sight, and that the ears of the Roman people are duller than their eyes.^[2] Of colours and light it is faint, as in Ovid, and of taste weak, as in Columella.^[2] Of people it is sluggish, as Cicero's dull grief, and of the body inert, as in Celsus.^[2] Most often it is dull-witted or stupid: Accius has someone not to be thought as dull as cattle.^[2][3] Cicero also uses it of a style.^[2] Church Latin glosses it dull, stupefied.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a blunt sword.^[2][4][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a dull-witted person.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of dim sight and dull ears.^[2][7]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of an inert body.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Blunt, dull, not sharp; of angles, obtuse.^[2][3][1]
2. Of the eyes or senses, dim, weak, dull.^[2][1]
3. Of colour or light, faint; of taste or smell, weak.^[2][1]
4. Sluggish, inert, lacking energy.^[2][1]
5. Dull-witted, stupid, dense; of style, dull.^[2][6][1]

Word family

• hebetō
• hebetūdō
• hebetēscō

Related words

• hebēscō
• hebetātiō
• hebetātrīx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de